Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Unlikely advertising bedfellows

You all remember this ad, right? It was the major pork ad campaign of the 1990s (or was it 1980s?). Let's go back to that innocent time. Housewives were busy making their men dinners of steak, roast beef, shishkabobs, and meatloaf, when (ALAS!) a study was published letting us know all about the evils of cholesterol. And what has cholesterol more than beef? [Well, there's lard, right?] So, in droves, women scoured the markets looking for healthier meats. Wa-la! The chicken was born. And along with it came oodles of recipes: fried chicken, chicken a la king, chicken kiev, and my fav-o-rite: spanish chicken loaded with garlic. Poor, poor pork was overlooked [like Cinderella]. One pig farmer after another gathered around the pig slaughter houses extolling the greatness that is pork. It was like preaching to the choir [or like convincing a butcher that steel blades are better than plastic]. What to do what to do? Then, one glorious day a man arrived riding a white horse [or a white cadillac] and said, "I can save you! I am, after all, an ad man." The rest is history.

Now, fast-forward to 2007. And this is what we have.

The situation is similar, no? Beef is replaced by Osama bin Laden [in the Reagan years]. Chicken is either Afghanistan or Iraq...take your pick, though Iraq works out nicely in this little scenario I've laid out for you, and Kurdistan (or Iraqi-Kurdistan) is, of course, pork. The ad man is a little older, charges less, but said, "I've got a slogan that will work. It's tried and true. And what's more? I'll sell it to you for half of what I sold it to the pig farmers." The rest is history. [Oh, hell with it! It doesn't work out. And, no, the situation is not similar at all. Screw it.]

But reallyl, I kid you not. This is really out there. If you don't believe me [nay sayer!] go to the Kurdistan Regional Government website, or their touristy one: http://www.theotheriraq.com/. Really, I can't make this up. I just can't.